The New York-based company is the independent online video producer behind more than 25 branded networks and popular Internet programming, distributed through YouTube, that regularly appears in our most watched video series.

In 2010, Next New Networks produced two of YouTube's most watched videos of the year. The $26 million venture-backed startup is also celebrating more than 1.2 billion video views across its network properties for the year.

The reported acquisition would align nicely with the previous Widevine purchase and would help Google's YouTube get into the video content production business. YouTube, then, would double as a destination site for its own premium content, material that it could monetize against better than the standard user-generated fare.

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